Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), was founded in 1887 as the State Normal Institute for Colored Students. Today, Florida A&M University is one of ten universities in the Florida State University System. Under the leadership of Dr. Frederick S. Humphries, FAMU has experienced significant growth in student enrollment, facilities enhancement and program offerings. The University is strongly committed to improving the health-related capabilities of FAMU through the support of research and other programmatic activities that help prepare both faculty and students to undertake the research challenges necessary to improve quality of life through biomedical and behavioral research. The goal of the Extramural Associates Program is to increase research productivity of faculty and students in the College of Arts and Sciences with particular emphasis on biomedical and behavioral research. The accomplishment of this goal will be assisted by the creation of an Office of Research Development (ORD) in the College of Arts and Sciences at FAMU. We expect to increase the number of funded research projects by faculty and the number of research publications by both faculty and students. We also expect to increase the amount of extramural and intramural research experiences of students, and thus increase the number of students who are accepted into and complete Ph.D. research programs. The Director of the ORD will coordinate a number of program activities that will include: faculty pilot research projects, intramural and extramural student research internships, research seminars, research workshops (to include funding sources, research application development, research applications, GRE, and research ethics), and the development and expansion of local and regional research collaborations.